Preventing the Buildout in 7v7 Soccer — Pressing and Defensive Tactics

Let's talk about how we can stop the other team from building out of the back. This means we want to make it hard for them to move the ball forward away from their goal. We can make it difficult for the other team if our striker and midfielders work together performing different jobs.

First, let's think about our striker. The striker is the player who is normally the closest to the other team's goal. When the other team's goalkeeper or defenders have the ball near the goal, our striker can run towards them and try to take the ball away. This is called pressing. By pressing, our striker makes it hard for the other team to make easy passes away from their goal area.

Now let's talk about our midfielders. They will not run hard to press the player with the ball like the striker. Instead, our midfielders should mark or stay close to the other team's midfielders to block any passing options while the striker presses the player with the ball. This strategy is called a midfield block. In this strategy, we are positioning our outside midfield players next to the other team's outside midfielders to make it very hard to pass it to them. If they cannot pass it to their outside midfielders, we are giving their defenders the option to try to dribble past our striker or make a dangerous pass to their center midfielder.

Winning the ball back near the other team's goal will give us a quick scoring chance. Now let's take a look at what these ideas look like for a goal kick. Once the goalkeeper passes the ball to the right defender, our striker runs as fast as they can toward the player with the ball. At the same time, the midfielders begin to mark or closely follow the other team's midfielders, staying goal side of the players. They are ready to quickly take the ball away if the other team tries to pass it. Watch as the pressure from our striker causes the other team to make a bad pass to the middle, where our center midfielder is able to win the ball and get a shot on goal. The goalkeeper saves the shot.

To change things up a bit, the goalkeeper quickly rolls the ball to the left defender and again our striker presses the defender with the ball. Fortunately for us, the striker wins the ball and quickly shoots it. It's a goal!

We scored this goal because we worked together with the same plan. Each team member understood the job of their position, kept an eye on the ball and thought about what could happen next.

Quiz question: Which position should be pressing the player with the ball? If you said that only the striker should press the player with the ball, you are correct. We purposely have our outside midfielders stand next to the other team's outside midfielders to leave the other team with only the most dangerous options to move the ball upfield.

While we did not talk much about the role of our center midfielder or defenders, their job is important for what happens after our striker presses. They should be ready to defend or support the attack depending on where the play goes.

As our team learns to build out of the back in practice, you will also get a lot of practice in each role defending a buildout. Good luck.